On March 24th and 25th, a group of fourth year undergraduate Biology students travelled to Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo for the annual Ontario Biology Day. This two day conference brings together Biology students from all Ontario universities to present their fourth year thesis project research to other students, professors and members of the community. Sarah Sandor is currently conducting her fourth year thesis project under the supervision of Dr. Jianping (JP) Xu in the Department of Biology. Her project involves examining the global phylogeography of mushrooms within the matsutake mushroom species complex. Matsutake are edible mushrooms found throughout temperate regions in the Northern Hemisphere. These organisms have high economic value in Japan, where they are commonly consumed, and play an important role in maintaining the health of ecosystems. Through analyzing specimens collected from around the world, Sarah conducted a multi-locus genotype analysis based on sequences of genes from the mitochondrial genome. This project is contributing to our understanding of the global diversity and evolutionary history of these species.

Sarah was awarded second place for the oral presentation she gave at the conference in the Ecology and Evolution division.

Recipharm, a Swedish pharmaceutical development and manufacturing firm, has announced that its 2017 International Environmental Award will be presented to Karen Kidd, McMaster’s Jarislowsky Chair in Environment and Health, and Professor in Biology, and Geography & Earth Sciences. Dr. Kidd is being recognised for her field biology experiments that have revealed the impacts of human made chemicals, such as synthetic estrogen, on fish biology.

Lars Backsell, Chairman of the Board of Recipharm said: “We are delighted to present the 2017 award to Karen Kidd. Her research will no doubt be essential in building commitment towards environmental matters and provides valuable guidance for future actions in order to decrease or avoid the negative effects of chemical contamination.”